TETUZI AKIYAMA / JEFF GBUREK – Respect

Spectropol

Tetuzi Akiyama: acoustic guitar; Jeff Gburek: prepared/slide guitar, electronics, acoustic guitar

Concise and evocative. These are the first adjectives that came to mind as I was listening to Respect, the recorded fruit of a collaboration started in 2005 between two reciprocally regardful performers gifted with decency and finely tuned ears in equal doses. Four tracks condensing issues of silent communication, unsmooth light noise, intelligently unassuming electronic treatments and improvisational sinlessness with skill and humanity, the latter constituent frequently made audible thanks to the perceptible breathing informing selected quiet spots, captured by a very close positioning of the microphones. As far as the guitars are concerned, it’s probably safe to declare that Akiyama is the responsible for glimmery concentration and plucked loneliness, whereas Gburek handles the “experimental” region of the sonic palette via intangible reverberation, gravelly secretiveness and not exactly conventional electric projections (his fuzzy textures and obliquely parabolic chords in the fourth chapter are absolutely impressive). The prospect is completed by casual appearances of extrinsic voices – a radio, perhaps – amidst segments that always maintain the level of artistic purity on the right side of things. Partly inspired by Gburek’s recollection of New Mexico’s desert landscapes, this music could be exploited by Wim Wenders in a hypothetical remaking of Paris, Texas. Move over, Ry Cooder: time for some unresolved awareness.